translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: LEV

label: NET study note

text: For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” ( אֱלִילִם , ’ elilim ), see the literature cited in the note on Lev 19:4 . It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’ el , “god, God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless, weak, powerless, nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”


text: Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.”